Forever and Always
by xCHARLIExPEACHx
Summary: 8 instances in which "Always" means more than you could imagine.


_**I'm rather proud of this one. Enjoy!**_

_**Forever and Always**_

_Severus Snape looked at his new friend, a young girl by the name of Lily Evans, and smiled. He was the luckiest boy in the world to have a friend as wonderful as her. _

_As he pushed Lily on the swing, he couldn't help but smile to himself. When Lily looked up at him with a questioning glance, his smile doubled in size. _

"_What are you so happy about Severus?" Lily asked, slowing down the swing. _

"_Just the fact that we're friends. I've never had a friend quite as lovely as you." When he said this, Lily blushed and looked down. _

"_Promise me that we'll always be friends. No matter what happens to us. "Lily looked at him with such sincerity shining in her eyes, that Severus couldn't bring himself to deny her. _

"Always_." He whispered. _

_Lily had found Severus sulking in a corner of the library one rainy afternoon. He was upset that Lily's new friend James had pulled a prank on him in front of the entire Great Hall. When Lily saw him like that, she sighed and sat down next to him. _

"_I'm sorry he did that to you. I gave him a proper lecture after you had gone. It wasn't right, what he did." Lily bit her lip, trying to coax an answer out of Severus._

"_I thought Slytherins were the evil ones." Severus snorted. He turned in his chair to look at Lily before asking…_

"_You'll always have my back, right?" Severus was rarely vulnerable. Lily wanted to make that look on his face disappear_

"Always_." Lily reassured him, giving him a pat on the hand. _

_Third year Potions was damn near impossible for Lily to understand. She was never good with cooking, and unfortunately, the two are very similar. She just didn't get what ingredients went into the potions and when and how they were supposed to be added. If it weren't for Severus, she would be failing Potions. _

"_Thanks again for helping me with my Potions essay Severus. I don't know where I'd be without you to help me. Be my Potions partner again tomorrow, please?" Lily laughed and leaned into Severus happily._

"Always_." Severus smiled. _

_Severus Snape slammed his bag down on the table. He couldn't have been more furious if he had tried. He had been working up the courage to ask Lily to the upcoming ball, but that miserable toe-rag Potter had beaten him to it. Severus didn't know if he'd be able to handle three more years worth of Potter induced misery. Lily had followed Severus into the library, wondering just what had set him off this time. _

"_Severus! What's got you in such a terrible mood?" Lily questioned brightly. The look he gave her sent chills up her spine. He was definitely mad about something. _

"_I don't want to talk about it." He huffed and turned away from her. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. _

"_You can tell me anything Severus. We'll always be friends. _Always_."_

"_I can't believe you're dating him! After everything he's done to me! All the times he's annoyed you! Why did you pick him!" Severus was fuming; he couldn't control anything that came out of his mouth. _

"_It's not your job to decide who I can and cannot date, Severus! He's nice to me, he's stopped annoying me. Besides, I want this. I want to be happy! Don't you want me to be happy Severus?" Lily shrieked, sending a fierce glare at her best friend. No one had expected her and James to get together in 6__th__ year, but Lily was pleased with the relationship and hated that Severus couldn't be happy for her. _

"_Oh… bu-… oh Lily of course I do. _Always_." Severus' resolve had broken. _

"_Levicorpus!" James Potter and his friends had circled Severus by the lake, and levitated him into the air, much to the amusement of everyone nearby. Severus flailed and sputtered, locking eyes with Lily, who had seen the altercation take place, but hadn't done anything to stop her boyfriend. After a minute or so, Lily urged James to let Severus down. As Severus touched the ground, he gathered his things and ran to the Great Hall, closely followed by Lily. _

"_Severus, I'm sorry! I didn't know what to do. I didn't know they were going to prank you, they had said they only wanted to talk to you." Lily laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, a position very familiar to Severus after the past 7 years. _

"_Don't touch me, Mudblood!" And just like that, the words he had promised to never say had left his lips. The look on her face broke his heart in two. _

"_What happened to you? We were supposed to be friends!" Lily ran down the corridor in tears. _

"Always_." Severus whispered, but the word didn't reach her ears. _

_It had been years since he had seen her, and this wasn't the way he had wanted to see his friend once again. When he found out that Lily was marrying Potter, and was expecting a child, Severus had done the most foolish thing he could ever have managed. He sold out the love of his life to the Dark Lord. Out of jealousy, or sorrow, or grief, he will never know. Severus will never forgive himself. Never. _

_He stepped into the rubble of the house, and ran to the nursery on the top floor. Sure enough, there she was on the floor, the woman he had loved since they were small children. And she was moving no more. He collapsed to the floor, all breath leaving him. He pulled her body close to him, and cradled her as his tears fell. _

"_I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It was my fault. My fault you're dead. My fault that I lost the woman I love."_

_He ran his fingers through her fiery hair, and closed her gorgeous emerald eyes using the tips of his fingers. He would never get to see those eyes again. _

_It was just then that Severus took notice of the only survivor in the room. Lily's son, Harry, had lived through the attack… and he had his mother's eyes. Severus owed it to her. He had to protect what was left of the woman he'd loved. Pulling Lily's body even closer, he whispered to her._

"_I'll do whatever it takes to see to it that he is safe. Whatever it takes to keep those eyes sparkling, the way yours did. I'll protect him with my life, my dear Lily flower. _Always."

"Lily? After all this time, Severus?" The old head master asked, directing an awed gaze in Severus's direction.

"_Always."_ Severus promised.


End file.
